Victoria Tasmania District of the Lutheran Church of Australia

1201 Riversdale Road
Box Hill South VIC 3128
Phone 03 9236 1200

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Closing of St John’s, Wodonga

Sunday 7th May 2023 saw 150 members both past and present, and visitors gather at St John’s Lutheran Church, Havelock Street Wodonga, for the official closing service of the church building.

Parish Pastor Joshua Muller and Bishop Lester Priebbenow led the service with the Bishop officially closing the door of the church to end over one hundred years of worship at the Havelock Street site. Pastor Graham Zweck a former pastor to the Parish read one of the readings for the day.

The St John’s church building was officially opened and dedicated by the Victorian District President at the time Rev T.M.J. Wiebusch on Sunday 28th May 1978.

Over thirty years ago when the vision of establishing a Lutheran school in West Wodonga came to fruition, a section of the land on which Victory Lutheran College now stands was set aside for the Parish to build a church on this site. The decision to move to the Victory College site was made at a Parish meeting in 2017.

After the closing of the church on Havelock Street, the Parish is now worshipping in Luther Hall, Victory Lutheran College, Drage Road in West Wodonga, until such time as the new church is completed, God willing by the end of the year.

May our Heavenly Father shower His unending blessings on the members of the Wodonga Parish as we close one building, and as we wait with anticipation and excitement to not only opening a new worship facility, but to see what the Lord has instore for us in our new location.

To God be the glory!

Closure of the Rosebud, Bethany Congregation

After forty-two years, firstly as a preaching place in the St Peters Frankston parish, and later as a separate congregation, Bethany has been a small group serving members living on the Mornington Peninsula. St Peters drew members from across the peninsula, including Mornington, Mt Martha, Red Hill and Rosebud, and caused capacity problems for the church.

During this time, serving pastors at St Peters, including Pastors Paul Griebel, Wayne Muschamp and Tom Fischer held an early morning service in one of several places in Rosebud. Firstly, it was in a Uniting Church on the Nepean Highway in Rosebud, then another local Uniting Church in Murray Anderson Road. It then moved to Padua College, Rosebud, originally in the Staff Room or a classroom, until the College acquired an old church from Red Hill as the school chapel. The congregation assisted in the chapel’s renovation and it then became Bethany’s place of worship to this day. Bethany was always served with great care by Padua staff, and we are most grateful that they were willing to allow us to use that facility for many years.

Approximately 30 baptised souls formed the original congregation. When Bethany separated from St Peters, it was served by Pastor Peter Benz on a part time basis, until his retirement in 2008, due to ill-health. Since then, we have been served by a number of pastors on a part-time basis, mainly one service each month until 2019. This includes Pastors David Koehne, Ray Roehm, Warren Partridge, and Special Ministry Pastor James Hoth Luk. However, special mention must be made of Pastor Emeritus Janos Dabasy, who has faithfully provided the congregation with quarterly services and communion for 13 years, and as recently as 2 weeks ago.

We give thanks to God for providing all the Pastors, and also to each of them for their service to our community.

We thank God for Bethany Lutheran Church; we have been truly blessed. His hand is in evidence from its genesis, gestation, implementation, and survival, through to this day of closure. The Holy Spirit has been with us, supporting and encouraging us, every step of the way, motivating the original members and all who have followed them – the Pastors, Chairmen, Treasurers, Secretaries, Committee Members, the Lay Readers, those of the Altar Guild, the providers of morning teas and the worshipers of this congregation. How else could the congregation have survived for 42 years, meeting weekly, with such minimal Pastoral involvement? Lord, we ask that you continue to bless every member that has called Bethany “My Church

Today, February 26, 2023, sees the closure of this unique congregation, but not to our individual Christian journeys. Accordingly, we ask for God’s guidance, wisdom and support, as we determine how and where each of us will continue to worship Him.

On Friday, September 30th, at District Pastors Conference, a gathering of Pastor’s Wives was held at Good Shepherd House, Ringwood. Whilst only seven ladies (and four children!) were able to make it this time, it was a lovely chance to reconnect with old acquaintances and meet others for the first time.

Facilitated by Erin Grainger from Congregational Support, we had the opportunity to discuss the blessings and challenges that we all share as Pastors Wives.

We are very thankful for Pastor Peter Ghalayini and Ringwood member Jenny who ensured there were plenty of activities to keep the young ones (mostly!) occupied whilst we chatted. It was so nice to catch up face to face after a long time of not being able to, and we hope we can have another larger gathering in the future.

If your Pastor’s Wife has not done so already, please encourage her to email pastorswives.victas@gmail.com to be added to the email list to be notified of future events.

Tara Modra

https://www.vic.lca.org.au/2022/10/26/10668/

Inviting Expressions of Interest – Geelong Lutheran College Chaplain

A vacancy for the position of Chaplain has occurred due to Pastor David Spike moving to a new role of Pastor of Formation and Ministry at LEVNT from the beginning of 2023. An expression of interest in a full-time Chaplain role, who may be a Pastor or Lay Person, in our College community is welcomed. This is a key role at the College and their primary focus is to have responsibility for:

  • ministry in the College through worship,
  • faith formation,
  • leadership in the Christian Studies program, Prep – Year 12, through the Lutheran Education Australia Christian Studies Curriculum Framework and
  • the pastoral care of

Inviting Expressions of Interest for Geelong Lutheran College Chaplain

GLC Chaplain Position Description

 

Greater Lutheran South Sudanese fellowships meet for the first time in two years

Sunday 1st May was a very happy day as our Greater Lutheran South Sudanese Fellowships met together for the first time since the pandemic began. Pastor James Ruei from the Geelong Fellowship served alongside Pastor Peter Deng from the Frankston/Pakenham Fellowship, with Specific Ministry Pastor-in-training, Koang Nhial from the Dandenong Fellowship also leading. The youth and women’s groups sang as well. There was additional reason for rejoicing, as this was the first time the Greater Lutheran Fellowships met in the redeveloped St James Moorabbin worship centre – the home base for the Moorabbin-Dandenong congregation including its Nuer South Sudanese members who generally worship in rented premises at the Dandenong end of the congregation. A shared meal followed, with celebration of one young lady’s sixth birthday!

Meet the Council for Youth and Young Adult Ministry

In 2020 the District Youth and Young Adult Ministry was reviewed with recommendations including greater volunteer responsibility and autonomy, and a more regional representation leading to greater regional participation.

The key focus this year was how to support Youth through COVID uncertainty. The COVID 19 lockdowns in 2021 have meant less ‘on ground’ events but some highlights have included:

  • Some SNAS (Sunday night at St Johns) events
  • Online Empower Youth Leadership training day
  • Hybrid Easter Camp (part online part local groups meeting)
  • An online form to hear about the YYAM review
  • CLW Purple in person
  • A fellowship day at Halls Gap  in lieu of CLW Orange

Down the track (when COVID easings allow) our SNAS group in Melbourne will seek to be more involved in metro church communities.

Despite a difficult year and several cancelled or adjusted events CYYAM have continued to meet around every seven weeks via Zoom discussing matters such as

  • Victorian Child Safe Standards (reviewed annually)
  • Planning and running CLW Camps and the Easter Camp
  • Professional Standards requirements
  • Grant applications
  • Empower Leadership training day

The current Council for Youth and Young Adult Ministry consists of Michael ‘Mog’ Benbow (Treasurer, interim Chair), Jon Westphal (CMS rep), Bianca Hearne, Alex ‘Mushy’ Muschamp, Rachel Kreymborg (CLW rep), Kerry Linke (YYAM Coordinator). This group of enthusiastic volunteers are supported by two pastors who serve as Spiritual Advisors, Pastor Levi Graham and Lucas Matuschka and District Pastor for Congregational Support Pastor Brett Kennett serving as a consultant

 

 

 

 

 

Losing Jesus is Losing Life – a devotion by Rev Lester Priebbenow, District Bishop

You know those times when a theme occurs repeatedly in things you hear or read. Let me share this one with you.

First, it was a newspaper article where the columnist highlighted the staggering financial cost of Australia’s ‘over-reaction’ to the virus, claiming that the country had ‘forgotten the inevitability of death.’

The second was a daily devotion based on Ecclesiastes 7:2, ‘Death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.’ The writer spoke of an establishment in South Korea that offers ‘free funerals for the living’ with the aim of helping people ‘improve their lives by considering their deaths.’ Since it opened in 2012, more than 25,000 people – from teenagers to retirees – have participated in mass ‘living funeral’ services. These are ‘meant to give the participants a truthful sense of their lives, inspire gratitude, and aid in forgiveness and reconnection among family and friends.’  [Our Daily Bread – 16 Oct 2021]

The third was a real-life account from Nepalese pastor Rabindra Das who was forced to consider his own death after contracting COVID-19. He concluded his story by reflecting:

‘During my isolation, I had the opportunity to renew my faith and calling. I learnt how important our faith is, which gives us trust and future hope; and how weak we are without Jesus. When I was reflecting, the Lord clearly showed me that the DREAM OF MY LIFE SHOULD BE JESUS. Making any other GOAL for my life is vain. Jesus is the LIFE, the WAY, the TRUTH. I learnt that I should enjoy my success and achievements in Jesus. I am His servant. If I can do my duty as He assigned to me, I am a successful person. Achieving everything without Jesus is achieving nothing. Losing Jesus is losing life.’   [Asia Focus – Sept 2021]

The fourth was another devotion that spoke about our tendency to live with anxiety or driveness that come from believing that all we have is life in this moment.

We easily forget that difficulties in this life, even the prospect of death itself, are there as reminders that we are designed for a world to come. [New Morning Mercies – P D Tripp, Mar 11]

In these anxious times we can worry about our lives from any number of angles, from fear that we may become infected with COVID-19 and die, to fear of harm to our bodies from vaccines, to fear of the loss of lifestyle or privileges to which we have become accustomed.

Can we really ‘improve our lives by considering our deaths?’  Taking to heart that ‘death is the destiny of everyone,’ as Ecclesiastes says, can indeed help us focus correctly on life.  It can cause us to ask, “Have I ‘forgotten the inevitability of my death?’ Have I considered the staggering spiritual cost of that forgetting? Have I made life in this world my idol? Am I hanging so tightly to some of God’s good gifts like money, relationships, security, health or pleasure, that I fear losing them more than I fear losing Jesus?”

‘Considering our deaths’ can help us to loosen our grip on the vain goals and achievements that can so easily rule our lives and prevent us living for eternity.

We can only do that properly when we first consider the death of Jesus. By his own death and resurrection Christ has guaranteed a perfect life to come, the likes of which will never be found in the here and now.

God’s gift of new life in Jesus can help us focus on making the most of God’s good gifts and dealing with the difficulties in our lives, while always considering, ‘the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Philippians 3:14).

May God help us all to say with Pastor Rabindra Das, ‘the DREAM OF MY LIFE SHOULD BE JESUS. Making any other GOAL for my life is vain… Achieving everything without Jesus is achieving nothing. Losing Jesus is losing life.’

Pastor Lester Priebbenow

District Bishop, Victoria and Tasmania

Hanging on and hanging together! Staying Connected at St Matthews, Footscray

Hanging on and hanging together. That has been the status of St Matthew’s Footscray over the past two years, as we have dealt with a pastoral vacancy and Melbourne’s series of COVID lockdowns. In the absence of a pastor, the leaders of our little (even littler since the lockdowns) congregation have not only handled the same lockdown fatigue and pressures as the rest of us, but stepped in to keep our church functioning and connected. We have been meeting through Google Meet each week. Although not all of our parishioners have joined us online, our numbers have been boosted at times by relatives from around the country, whose own congregations have not been able to meet.

“Being able to connect every Sunday has kept the community together,” said Vanessa Williams, the St Matthew’s council member who has coordinated, put together and run the online services, with the help of LCA resources.

“It’s been wonderful to see everyone on screen every week,” agreed Ruth Borchert, our church deacon. “So many congregations have absolutely nothing. It’s a long time without a pastor and difficult times. I think we can just be thankful that not too many things have happened in our congregation over the past two years.”

As well as allowing connection with distant family members, the online services have also enabled connection with members of our own church family, Ken and Esther Cross, who have continued to worship with us from their new home and workplace in Utopia, two or three hours’ drive from Alice Springs.

While this period has had its challenges (including some break-ins to the vacant church premises), it has also had its unexpected joys. One of these has been our new relationship with the VECA Hope Church, a Vietnamese congregation, who recently started sharing our premises. They happen to have quite a bit of building expertise in their congregation and have already helped revamp our kitchen and renovate our church hall. The timing of the new partnership meant that they have only had one service, which they combined with a celebratory lunch to which we were all invited, but it was a blessing that the timing of that event fell between lockdowns.

“They worked hard to be ready in time for that one service and they did,” said Simon Lienert, St Matthew’s chairman.

“It wasn’t because of COVID that they wanted to be ready for that date, but it turned out it was just about the only weekend in between lockdowns that we could physically worship at the church.”

It is perhaps a sign that, even more than the resilience that has helped us hang on to our worship tradition and each other in a new way, God is hanging on to us. While we are holding on, waiting for a return to physical services and the invigoration of a new pastor, we can be sure that God has other new blessings for us and our future.

by Sam and Bec Lienert

Giving Thanks for Those Preparing to Serve

Romans 10:15b — “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news…”

In today’s edition of the Vic-Tas District eNews (29 April 2026), you’ll have seen a joyous report concerning the recent graduations of Erin Grainger and Pr. Sue Westhorp – congratulations Erin and Pr. Sue!

It is wonderful to acknowledge that theological study is not merely academic advancement; it is part of the church’s prayerful discernment of how God provides servants for his people and mission. In a heartening recent update from ALC we can give thanks for:

  • 44 students currently enrolled in Theology and Ministry courses at ALC in Semester 1, 2026 (19 females and 25 males).
  • Of these, 12 are discerning the General Ministry Pastor pathway, and 15 are engaged in Specific Ministry Pastor opportunities.
  • There are also 26 participants in LEA’s Leadership Development Program completing an ALC unit in Educational Theology, plus 11 Bachelor of Counselling students.
  • Within the Vic/Tas District, several people are already connected with SMP pathways, and one person is listed as discerning pastoral ministry.

What a cause for thanksgiving! In a time when the church is acutely conscious of the need for ministry workers, God is still stirring hearts toward study, discernment, formation, and service.

Behind every enrolment number is a person, a story, a congregation, and a possible call of God that deserves prayerful attention. Perhaps God is ‘tapping you on the shoulder’?

A new and encouraging local example: SMP formation in practice

At Horsham, Adam Borgas, a licensed SMP Candidate, is serving in a structured ministry-training arrangement connected with Holy Trinity Horsham and the Dimboola–Natimuk Parish. Pr Hans Peethala is providing close face-to-face oversight and mentoring for Adam as he completes field work along with his SMP study program at ALC.

  • The arrangement is providing a clear framework for shared ministry for the remainder of 2026.
  • Adam’s service is 25 hours per week, with Horsham his primary ministry base and the Dimboola-Natimuk parish as appreciative partners and recipients of his ministry.
  • Oversight, supervision, workload safeguards, local pastoral needs, and careful formal review points are all built into the arrangement so that Adam is well supported.

Please pray for Adam and all those supporting him, including through the office of Bishop as we receive this wonderful example of God helping the LCANZ respond faithfully and creatively to ministry need while also caring for the formation and wellbeing of the person being prepared.

Naming and Blessing of Slovenski Bozi Dom – Good News College

On Tuesday, 1 July, Good News Lutheran College held a special ceremony to dedicate and name their new Product Design and Technology Centre. Pastor Brett Kennett attended on behalf of the Vic-Tas District.

The new facility is named Slovenský Boží dom (Slovak House of God) in recognition of the Slovak Evangelical Congregation of Christ the Lord. This congregation, established in 1967 by Slovak immigrants from Vojvodina (then part of Yugoslavia), played a key role in founding the college and nurturing Christian education in the region.

The event featured prayers, Bible readings, and blessings, as well as the unveiling of a commemorative plaque. It was a celebration of faith, heritage, and community, honouring the Slovak congregation’s enduring legacy of service and generosity.

A highlight of the day was the launch of a beautifully prepared history publication tracing the congregation’s journey from 17th-century Europe through migration to Australia, where they built a vibrant faith community and established their own church in 1979. The dedication also paid tribute to Mr. Ján (John) Beláni, OAM, whose vision, philanthropy, and missionary work—from Papua New Guinea to South Sudan—have left a lasting impact locally and globally. His generosity, including donating land for the church and co-founding Good News Lutheran College, continues to inspire future generations. The Slovenský Boží dom now stands as a testament to this heritage and as a beacon for learning and faith in our college community.

 

Attendees from the Slovak community and Good News College students.

 

 

The plaque was unveiled by Mr. Ján (John) Beláni OAM.
School principal Fiona McCauliffe (left), with Pastor Brett Kennett (centre), and members of the Slovak community.

   

Slovak craft was on display, and delicious cultural delicacies were enjoyed.
Photos supplied by Good News Lutheran College.